This document discusses conventions of hip hop media products and how the author's media product uses, develops, or challenges these conventions. It outlines five key conventions: 1) Use of bling and wealth displays in videos 2) Fast-paced editing in videos 3) Featuring other performers like dancers or a gang in videos 4) Placement of track lists on album digipak back covers 5) Minimal album promotion on magazine covers. The author indicates their media product uses conventions 1, 2, and 4 but challenges conventions 3 by not featuring degrading women and 5 by including more social media promotion to reach a wider audience.

1. EVALUATION QUESTION #1
IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP, OR CHALLENGE FORMS
AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS ?
By Joseph Brown

2. CONVENTION 1: VIDEO
-USE OF BLING
• Hip-hop videos almost always include
expensive items/props such as bling and
jewellery. This is common as the artists
like to portray and signify their status.
• The artist and other performers will
wear lots of bling and show it off within
the video as this shows their lifestyle.
• Expensive items such as cars/alcohol
are usually shown and referenced in
the video which allows the artists to
show off their wealth.
• We USE this convention strongly
as we feature lots of flashy bling
and expensive items such as cars.
Our video features chains,
watches, sports cars and
expensive alcohol.
Young Thug shows off his
bling in “Webbie”
Kodak Black shows
off his wealth with a
luxury car in
“Everything 1k”
• They usually show it off my
holding it to the camera and
make it a prominent feature when
performing

3. CONVENTION 2: VIDEO
-USE OF FAST PACED EDITING
• Hip hop videos usually feature the use of fast paced editing to
keep the video interesting.
• Common in lots of videos as the editing keeps up with the beat
of the song which means the clips are constantly changing.
• This makes the video interesting and enticing for the
audience as there is always something happening.
• This is especially important in performance videos
as it does not feature a narrative the audience can
engage with.
• It is also utilized to cut between shots that
signify their wealth, status and lifestyle, such as
expensive bling and cars.
• We USE this convention as we have a
performance video and therefore have to meet
this convention to keep it interesting.
*Effectively shown In Young Dolph “Run it up”
*Shown in Migos “Bad and Boujee”
*All continuous shots
*Our
Video

4. CONVENTION 3: VIDEO
-OTHER PERFORMERS AND EXTRAS
• Hip hop videos often feature lots of women
dancing/their gang hanging around etc. with the
artists in clubs/parties etc.
• Hip hop artists like to show off their status and one way to do
that is by having lots of women with them at all times,
reflecting the ‘Player nature’ they have.
• This reveals the credibility and status of the artist, so
this is consistent in lots of videos.
• However as this degrades women and renders them
meaningless, we did not want to feature that in our video.
• Therefore we use the convention that the artists ‘gang’ would
be hanging around/dancing at parties etc. as this shows their
strong status, popularity and power, from strength in
numbers.
• We USED the convention of the
artists and his ‘gang’ but
CHALLENGED the convention of
being with lots of women.
Our video
21 Savage “Air it out”
Gucci Mane “Stutter” (Links to first point)

5. CONVENTION 4: DIGIPAK
-USE OF TRACKLIST ON BACK COVER
• Hip hop albums usually feature the track
list on the back cover that are very simple.
• This is a common convention as the front cover usually
features the artist so people are enticed to look at it.
• Audiences then look at the tracks, which is usually featured at
the back as this is where most content is placed.
• The audience can look for certain songs that have been pre-
released or given a sneak peek, they are automatically
attracted to this through an inherited audience.
• We DEVELOP this convention as we also feature the
artist on the back cover alongside the track list whilst
still keeping the theme.
• This means the digipak can be less cluttered with
promotions, this places the track list on the back
cover, simple and bold, following the digipak theme.
Our back cover
21 Savage “Savage Mode”
back cover and track list
Future “Hndrxx” Back
cover and track list

6. CONVENTION 5: MAGAZINE
-MINIMAL ALBUM PROMOTION
• Hip hop magazine covers feature
minimal promotion of their album.
• Magazine covers of many artists usually feature a sort of
promotion such as ratings and reviews or social media links.
• Hip hop artists have a smaller audience due to the negative
connotations of such type of music and therefore their social
media is not as well known, they are not watched or followed
as much as ‘Pop or RnB’ artists such as Rihanna.
• Therefore there is less focus on promotion/social media and
more on the artists message behind the album. They do this
by using unique images/creations or by using a picture of
themselves.
• An inherited audience is gained by people who actively seek
out the music online and the ones who like this type of music.
• We CHALLENGE this convention as we would not only want
to attract our target audience but a wider audience. We do
this by putting common social media links on our magazine.
Our magazine
features not only the
social media links but
also an image of the
artist.
*Gucci Mane
album magazine
*Young Thugga collab album
magazine
*Both feature no social media promotion